


By Your Side

by NamelesslyNightlock



Series: Going Down Swinging [7]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Asgardian Tony Stark, Canon Divergence - Thor (2011), Established Relationship, Feels, Insecure Loki (Marvel), Jotunn Feels, Jotunn Loki (Marvel), Loki (Marvel) Feels, Loki (Marvel) Needs a Hug, M/M, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark is a good boyfriend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-24
Updated: 2019-05-24
Packaged: 2020-03-13 15:07:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18943429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NamelesslyNightlock/pseuds/NamelesslyNightlock
Summary: Everyone knows that the touch of a Frost Giant will burn an Aesir to the bone. So when he saw a giant grab his lover’s arm, Anthony immediately ran to help– but Loki wasn’t injured, and they both knew exactly what that meant.





	By Your Side

**Author's Note:**

> **Prompt** — _“I don’t understand.”_

When he saw the Frost Giant grab hold of Loki’s arm, Anthony felt his heart jump to his throat. He knew what the touch of a Frost Giant did to an Aesir, he knew that it could burn all the way to the bone in a matter of _seconds_.

Loki, of course, was far from defenceless and he had killed the Frost Giant by the time Anthony made it over to him, lurching and stumbling as he moved as fast as he could over the ice that covered Jotunheim. The moment he reached his lover he took Loki’s hand in his own, already mentally preparing to see a frostbitten wound and readying himself to patch it up—

But Loki’s arm was not burned black from the ice-cold touch of a giant– it was _blue_ , the same blue as the skin of the creature lying slain at Loki’s feet.

“I don’t understand,” Anthony whispered, staring even as the blue faded away to be replaced by the familiar creamy tone of Loki’s skin.

Though of course, Anthony _did_ understand– he wasn’t unintelligent, neither of them were, and it was not difficult to work out what that blue meant. It didn’t make any sense, surely it was impossible—

And yet, there truly was only one explanation for why Loki’s body responded to a Jötunn’s touch the way that it had.

Anthony’s eyes darted up to meet Loki’s frightened green ones, his lips parting in another question, in a reassurance, in just _something_ that might help. But before Anthony could give voice to a single option, Loki pulled his arm away, clearly panicked.

“There’s no time for this,” Loki said, voice harsh, hurried, _scared_. “We need to go.”

Anthony did not want to move, he did not want Loki to suffer this alone for even another moment. But the fight that was the result of Thor’s arrogance was still raging around them, and they could not afford to become distracted. Fandral was already wounded, and Volstagg had suffered the very injury that Loki had just avoided– they couldn’t afford to linger for even a moment more, not even for something such as this. 

Still, Anthony knew that he was not about to leave Loki’s side. So he stayed right by him while they fought, while they ran, while the Allfather called the Bifröst down and brought them back to Asgard. Anthony didn’t even want to leave when Odin spoke privately with the two princes, not wanting Loki to have to deal with the fallout of his brother’s actions alone. But he didn’t have a choice, so he went to Loki’s quarters instead. The wards and protections on the door let him pass without any trouble as always, and he stepped through to the rooms that had long since become as familiar to him as his own home.

The waiting was hard.

Anthony started with pacing, not wanting to just sit still– but that didn’t help his nerves. So then he _did_ still, curling up in the centre of Loki’s bed, breathing in the familiar scent and reassuring himself that Loki would get through this, that he was going to be all right– and that Anthony would be there with him though it all.

When Loki entered, he did not appear surprised to find Anthony there. But he was even edgier than before, and he didn’t come close, didn’t seek comfort like he normally would have. Anthony had been expecting Loki to join him on the bed, so that they could curl together and hold each other until they found their voices to work out how to fix the problem– but instead, Loki remained near the door, tense and hurting and much too far away.

“Thor has been exiled,” Loki said, rubbing his hands over his face, through his hair, his distress so palpable Anthony felt it as his own.

Anthony slid off the bed and stood, though he didn’t move any closer. “For how long?”

“Until he _learns his lesson_ ,” Loki replied. “I didn’t mean for this to happen, I didn’t mean for any of this.”

“You couldn’t have known,” Anthony said gently, and Loki shook his head.

“I was foolish, and now…” he laughed, but it was bitter and broken. “And now, everything is going to fall apart.”

And Anthony knew that they weren’t talking about Thor anymore.

“Hey,” he said, a faltering step bringing him a little more toward Loki, but he stopped himself before he could make a mistake. “Don’t do this to yourself. This is—”

“I need to go,” Loki said abruptly, cutting through Anthony’s attempted comfort and stalling his breath for a moment.

“Where?” Anthony asked worriedly. “Loki—”

“Do not worry,” Loki said, “I will go alone. There is no need for you to suffer this with me—”

“That’s what we do,” Anthony said, a touch of desperation working its way into his tone as he fought to help Loki _see_. “I will always be with you, if it means that _you_ will suffer a little less.”

Loki’s eyes closed for a brief moment as he visibly fought to steady himself, a mask falling into place. “There’s something that I need to do.”

“Then let me do it with you,” Anthony begged. “Loki, please. Don’t let this pull us apart, not even for a moment.”

 _This_. The word was loaded, and Loki’s breath shuddered at it. His fists were clenched at his sides, the lines of his muscles tense– and his blank expression saying so much more than Loki could have hoped that it would. Anthony’s arms ached with the need to draw him close, but he forced the need away, recognising that Loki would not accept the touch in that moment.

“Very well,” Loki said tersely, turning and heading to the door, not waiting to see if Anthony was keeping up. “But you… must not try to stop me.”

Anthony gave his agreement, knowing that if it meant he could stay with Loki through this, he would be willing to agree to almost anything.

He was not surprised to see that they were headed to Odin’s Vault, and the closer they came to it, the tenser Loki became. And when they paused outside the door, Loki turned and gave Anthony yet another chance to go.

“Are you sure that this is something you wish to see?” Loki asked, pained.

And Anthony knew _why_ Loki wanted him to leave– because Loki thought that this was about to be too much for Anthony to cope with, that it would make Anthony leave for _good_ , and he wanted to hold on to what they had for just a little longer. Anthony raised his hand, wanting to touch Loki’s cheek– but while the prince did not flinch away, the guarded look that entered his eyes was enough for Anthony to let his hand come to rest on Loki’s shoulder instead, so that he could offer _some_ comfort at least without the touch of skin on skin.

“I am sure,” he said, voice gentle as he tried to infuse his words with all the seriousness of a sacred vow. “I’m not going to leave you, not now. Not ever.”

A wounded sound fell from Loki’s lips as if he couldn’t quite believe that, but then he turned on his heel and pushed open the doors, his seiðr and his status as a prince more than enough to get them both inside without consequence.

Anthony did as requested and stayed a few steps behind Loki as they walked down the row, between items of great value, power, or both. Right at the very end, as if on display to raise Odin’s pride was the Casket of Ancient Winters, that blue shrine to all that the Frost Giants had lost. It was the source of their power, the spoils of a war won the very same year that Loki had been born.

It was hard not to move forward as Loki stood behind the Casket and reached out with trembling fingers, the line of his shoulders so tense as he hesitated—

And then his hands curled around it, and everything changed.

Loki’s eyes were closed, but Anthony watched as his lover’s fingers blushed a dark sapphire. The colour spread up his wrists, over his arms and across his face, accompanied by the raised lines that marked him as something very different from what he had always believed himself to be. But… Loki still looked like _Loki_. His face was the same shape, and he didn’t grow any taller. He still looked like the man that Anthony had adored for such a very long time, and Anthony knew that underneath the blue skin, he would still remain the same.

Anthony stepped forward a little closer, his fingers itching, his breathing quick. Loki’s eyes snapped open at the sound of his footsteps, and Anthony saw that they were a shining ruby, so very strange and yet familiar– because they still belonged to Loki, and the emotion in them was more than easy for Anthony to read.

“So, I suppose it is true,” Loki sighed, refusing to meet Anthony’s gaze, staring down at the Casket he still held between his blue hands. And he sounded so broken– _mystified_ , and yet still unwaveringly accepting of this truth that must have shaken him to the core.

But then, Loki had always known he was different from the other Aesir, had always considered himself an outsider. Anthony supposed that for the man who had been mocked for his magic and his tricks his entire life, this came as less of a shock and more of a confirmation that he had never belonged.

And that broke Anthony’s heart.

Not able to stay away for another moment, Anthony stepped up toward the dais that the Casket rested upon, moving around the side so there was nothing between them.

“So you’re not an Aesir,” Anthony said. “But you’re still Loki.”

“Do you not see, Anthony?” Loki asked brokenly, his eyes wide and pleading, and he looked so terribly, terribly afraid. “I am a _Frost Giant_.”

“I know,” Anthony said gently. “But that doesn’t matter to me.”

“I don’t understand,” Loki whispered, raising his hand to _finally_ touch Anthony, brushing his fingers tentatively over Anthony’s cheek as if shocked that he was allowed to do so.

“Don’t you?” Anthony asked. “Loki, I love you. Even if you are a Jötunn, you are still the boy I met hiding behind the training grounds. You are still the man who kissed me for the first time under the stars. You are still the person that I would spend every moment with if I could, because you are still the one who I have fallen in love with.”

Loki’s breath left him in a shudder, his eyes widening in disbelief. It wasn’t the first time that Anthony had stated the way that he felt, not anything close, but he knew that it was something Loki had both needed and yet not expected to hear.

“But I am—”

“Perfect,” Anthony cut in, not wanting to hear what Loki was about to call himself, not wanting Loki to _say_ it– especially when it was as far from the truth as could be. “Loki, even if the others will see you in a new light, even if they laugh and point, or try to tell you that you are less than you are. Even if this begins to make you see yourself differently, you will _always_ be perfect to me.”

And then Anthony pressed up on his toes and touched his lips to Loki’s blue ones, not caring that were a little cooler than normal because they still warmed him the same as they always had. He heard sound of the Casket being put back in its proper place and then Loki’s hands were on his waist, sliding over his tunic, pulling him flush against Loki’s chest.

And when they pulled back and Anthony opened his eyes to meet familiar green, he truly didn’t see a difference to when the kiss had begun.

“You’re still my Loki,” he promised. “Nothing has changed.”

“Anthony,” Loki whispered– and his tone was reverent now, no longer afraid. “You are truly staying with me.”

“And I always will,” Anthony said, his lips curling up into a relieved smile. “You’re not going to get rid of me that easily.”

And while Anthony knew that there would be a lot of hardship for them in the future, that Loki would be suffering through a lot of stares and ridicule, he also knew that he would stand by Loki’s side forever– and together, they would weather it all.

**Author's Note:**

> I've written something of a sequel to this fic, [Measure of Worth](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19250284), which looks at what happens when Thor comes back to Asgard.


End file.
